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Saturday, 19 December 2015

Review ~ The Exclusives by Rebecca Thornton

Twenty7Books
December 2015

What would you risk for your own success ?

The story opens in 2014, where we
are introduced to one of the main characters, Josephine Grey. She appears
troubled, given to soul searching moments of introspection, and so, when an
email pings from Freya Seymour, a girl she once knew at boarding school, some
eighteen years earlier, the troubled nature of Josephine's personality begins
to manifest itself. We then return back in time to 1996, when Freya and
Josephine were the sort of best mates who were joined at the hip, who knew
everything there was to know about each other, who loved and laughed, hugged
and cried and yet, as the highs and lows of both their lives start to be
stripped away, secrets which have haunted them both, start to be revealed.

It’s an accomplished debut novel,
there is fine attention to detail and setting the story in an all-girls
boarding school, a place it must be said, I am not familiar with, is an interesting
choice of venue. There is is a definite sense of the ennui which is all too
easily manifested by girls being cloistered together, and of the petty
squabbles, that can exist between teenagers, and especially girls, regardless
of their background. The mystery at the heart of the novel is nicely explored,
and there is the lure of fascination between two girl friends who, seemingly,
share everything, to the exclusivity of anyone else.

Overall, it’s rather a slow
burner of a story, and whilst the dénouement at the end explains why the friendship
between these two girls has been allowed to degenerate, the secret which has
tormented lives, whilst tragic, isn’t as venomous as I would have imagined, but
I think, therein lies the strength of the story, that lives, and friendships, are often ruined
for much less.

Best read with a Pizza Maguerita,
heavy on the cheese… and bottle of icy cold , brain freezing, cherry cola.

About the Author

Rebecca Thornton previously worked as a freelance journalist covering a range of topics. She now devotes her time to writing and The Exclusives is her debut novel.